#the singing hills cycle

[vensulove]

she had a foreigner’s beauty, like a language we do not know how to read.

-nghi vo, the empress of salt and fortune

#my first book of 2024 was a reread of this beautiful book #the empress of salt and fortune #nghi vo #moodboard #book moodboard #brown moodboard #brown aesthetic #tan aesthetic #beige aesthetic #beige moodboard #tan moodboard #the singing hills cycle

[sapphic-book-tournament]

The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo-

A young royal from the far north is sent south for a political marriage in an empire reminiscent of imperial China. Her brothers are dead, her armies and their war mammoths long defeated and caged behind their borders. Alone and sometimes reviled, she must choose her allies carefully.

Rabbit, a handmaiden, sold by her parents to the palace for the lack of five baskets of dye, befriends the emperor's lonely new wife and gets more than she bargained for.

At once feminist high fantasy and an indictment of monarchy, this evocative debut follows the rise of the empress In-yo, who has few resources and fewer friends. She's a northern daughter in a mage-made summer exile, but she will bend history to her will and bring down her enemies, piece by piece.

The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson-

Tomorrow, on the beach, Baru Cormorant will look up from the sand of her home and see red sails on the horizon.

The Empire of Masks is coming, armed with coin and ink, doctrine and compass, soap and lies. They'll conquer Baru’s island, rewrite her culture, criminalize her customs, and dispose of one of her fathers. But Baru is patient. She'll swallow her hate, prove her talent, and join the Masquerade. She will learn the secrets of empire. She’ll be exactly what they need. And she'll claw her way high enough up the rungs of power to set her people free.

In a final test of her loyalty, the Masquerade will send Baru to bring order to distant Aurdwynn, a snakepit of rebels, informants, and seditious dukes. Aurdwynn kills everyone who tries to rule it. To survive, Baru will need to untangle this land’s intricate web of treachery - and conceal her attraction to the dangerously fascinating Duchess Tain Hu.

But Baru is a savant in games of power, as ruthless in her tactics as she is fixated on her goals. In the calculus of her schemes, all ledgers must be balanced, and the price of liberation paid in full.

#the traitor baru cormorant #the tyrant baru cormorant #the monster baru cormorant #baru cormorant #sapphic book tournament #lesbian #lesbian books #sapphic #lgbt #sapphic books #lgbt books #sapphic fiction #lgbt characters #lesbian romance #seth dickinson #the singing hills cycle #nghi vo #fantasy books #lesbian fantasy novels #lesbian novels #lesbian characters #lesbian stories #lesbian romance novels #lesbian fiction #sapphic characters #sapphic fantasy #sapphic romance #empire of masks #tain hu #sapphic stories

[transbookoftheday]

Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo

Wandering cleric Chih of the Singing Hills travels to the riverlands to record tales of the notorious near-immortal martial artists who haunt the region. On the road to Betony Docks, they fall in with a pair of young women far from home, and an older couple who are more than they seem. As Chih runs headlong into an ancient feud, they find themself far more entangled in the history of the riverlands than they ever expected to be.

Accompanied by Almost Brilliant, a talking bird with an indelible memory, Chih confronts old legends and new dangers alike as they learn that every story—beautiful, ugly, kind, or cruel—bears more than one face.

#into the riverlands #the singing hills cycle #nghi vo #nonbinary #trans book of the day #trans books #queer books #bookblr #booklr

[bajoop-sheeb]

Sorry if this is invasive in any way, but I host a queer library at my university and noticed we do not have many authors of colour hosted in our collection. I enjoy sci fi and would like to put more of it into our collection, but I'd really like for some amount of it to feature authors of colour. I know Samuel Delany is a good author for this, but I was wondering about any beyond this.

I'd love to connect more people to works by people of colour, and I think it is a genuine necessity for our library to do so to be worth maintaining. Would you have any recommendations? Thank you.

Not invasive at all! I definitely do have some recommendations for books by BIPOC + queer spec fic authors, but they're mostly fantasy. Hope that's okay--if anyone has any queer BIPOC sci-fi books to add, please do so! (There'll be a lot of overlap with my earlier post.)

Anything by Octavia Butler. My personal favorites are Dawn, The Parable of the Sower, and her short fiction collection, Bloodchild and Other Stories (sci-fi)

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon (sci-fi)

The Radiant Emperor duology by Shelley Parker-Chan (fantasy)

The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez (fantasy)

The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo (fantasy)

Fireheart Tiger by Aliette de Bodard, who also writes absolutely wonderful short fiction (fantasy)

The Tiger’s Daughter by K. Arsenault Rivera (fantasy)

The Unbroken by C.L. Clark (fantasy)

The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri (fantasy)

#an unkindness of ghosts #the radiant emperor #the vanished birds #fireheart tiger #the unbroken #science fiction #fantasy #bloodchild and other stories #ascendant #the burning kingdoms #the singing hills cycle #books #asks

[smokefalls]

… people change, remember? No one is as they were five years ago, or two years ago, or a week ago, or a moment ago. If you love someone, you must let them change.

Nghi Vo, Mammoths at the Gates

#Nghi Vo #Mammoths at the Gates #The Singing Hills Cycle #quote #fiction #fantasy #queerlit #novella #2023 reads

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Books of 2023. THE SINGING HILLS CYCLE by Nghi Vo.

Don't mind me, just on a novella kick over here. I read Empress a while back and enjoyed it (so that'll be a reread!), and then a friend recommended Tiger as similar to a novella of my own that's loosely in the works, and THEN I won a Goodreads giveaway for Mammoths (!!!!), so clearly the stars are just all aligning. Since Mammoths comes out in September, I wanted to Actually Read The Advance Reader Copy In Advance (and maybe even write up a Review!).

(Side note: I know Riverlands isn't pictured, but it's Not Out In Paperback Yet and all my editions must match.)

#books of 2023 #book photography #my photography #books #the singing hills cycle #nghi vo #the empress of salt and fortune #when the tiger came down the mountain #mammoths at the gates #cries i really do love novellas so much #perfect little bite sized books

[bangbangwhoa]

books I’ve read in 2023 📖 no. 149

Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo

“Sometimes, you cannot survive and still be who you were.”

#books #2023 reads #mammoths at the gates #nghi vo #the singing hills cycle #booklr #lit edit

[smalltownfae]

#wlw books #fingersmith #this is how you lose the time war #the seven husbands of evelyn hugo #the unbroken #legends & lattes #the singing hills cycle #the secret lives of church ladies #the raven and the reindeer #kissing the witch #my polls #I need to read more wlw because I had to include some I didn't even cared for #it would be easier if it was just lesbian characters but the poll os about wlw as in couples or at least almost that #black water sister #some of these have couples that aren't the focus but that is the best I could do

[haveyoureadthisfantasybook]

vote YES if you have finished the entire book.

vote NO if you have not finished the entire book.

(faq · submit a book)

#fantasy #books #The Singing Hills Cycle #The Empress of Salt and Fortune #Nghi Vo #poll #result: no #l: English

[krakenarius]

🐯 Headcannon Ho Thi Thao inspired drawing from Nghi Vo's novella When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain, Im honestly obssesed with the singing hills cycle at this point.

Oh also I drew this on a doodle date(youtube channel) community canvas stream, I cleaned it up to share but like basically everyone shares a big canvas and draws together its really fun.

#drawing #artwork #digital art #art #digital illustration #tiger #the singing hills cycle #whenthetigercamedownthemountain #ho thi thao #fanart #singing hills cycle

[justabooklovingmetalhead]

New Releases of May 2024!

I pre-ordered The Takedown because The Stand-In was great, hoping it’s as good as its predecessor!

#Queerceañera #the takedown #A witch’s guide to burning #The brides of high hill #Archangels of funk #We mostly come out at night #We Mostly Come Out At Night: 15 Queer Tales of Monsters Angels & Other Creatures #Alex crespo #lily chu #Aminder Dhaliwal #nghi vo #andrea hairston #Rob Costello #the singing hills cycle #the empress of salt and fortune #A swift and sudden exit #Nico vicenty #The scientist the spaceman and the stars between them #A.L. Davidson #Don’t be a drag #Skye quinlan #New releases #book recs

[oxymoron0-o]

“The abbey at Singing Hills would say that if a record cannot be perfect, it should at least be present. Better for it to exist than for it to be perfect and only in your mind.”

—The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo

#the empress of salt and fortune #Nghi Vo #the singing hills cycle #damn fine sentences #writing

[freckles-and-books]

Next read!

#books #into the riverlands #nghi vo #the singing hills cycle #currently reading

[transbookoftheday]

The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo

With the heart of an Atwood tale and the visuals of a classic Asian period drama, Nghi Vo's The Empress of Salt and Fortune is a tightly and lushly written narrative about empire, storytelling, and the anger of women.

A young royal from the far north, is sent south for a political marriage in an empire reminiscent of imperial China. Her brothers are dead, her armies and their war mammoths long defeated and caged behind their borders. Alone and sometimes reviled, she must choose her allies carefully.

Rabbit, a handmaiden, sold by her parents to the palace for the lack of five baskets of dye, befriends the emperor's lonely new wife and gets more than she bargained for.

At once feminist high fantasy and an indictment of monarchy, this evocative debut follows the rise of the empress In-yo, who has few resources and fewer friends. She's a northern daughter in a mage-made summer exile, but she will bend history to her will and bring down her enemies, piece by piece.

#the empress of salt and fortune #the singing hills cycle #nghi vo #nonbinary #trans book of the day #trans books #queer books #bookblr #booklr

[queer-book-character-tournament]

Character, book, and author names under the cut

Chih- The Singing Hills Cycle by Nghi Vo

Wyatt Croft- The Witch King by HE Edgmond

Tolya Yul-Bataar- Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

Yana Ro- The High Republic: Path of Deceit/ Path of Vengeance by Tessa Gratton, Justina Ireland, and Cavan Scott

#Chih #The Singing Hills #The Singing Hills Cycle #Nghi Vo #Wyatt Croft #The Witch King #HE Edgmond #Tolya Yul-Bataar #Shadow and Bone #sab #Grishaverse #Leigh Bardugo #Yana Ro #The High Republic #Star Wars #THR #The High Republic: Path of Deceit #The High Republic: Path of Vengeance #Path of Vengeance #Path of Deceit #Tessa Gratton #Justina Ireland #Cavan Scott #polls #lgbt books #queer book character tournament 2

[smokefalls]

Sometimes, you cannot survive and still be who you were.

Nghi Vo, Mammoths at the Gates

#Nghi Vo #Mammoths at the Gates #The Singing Hills Cycle #quote #fiction #fantasy #queerlit #novella #2023 reads